Fawcett says he lied about being present at killing

Mauha Huatahi Fawcett has told the jury at his murder trial that he lied all through the video interviews he gave to the police.

The 26-year-old told the High Court on the 19th day of the Mellory Manning murder trial  that he had stupidly implicated himself in a serious crime, but said he was not guilty of murder.

He said the Crown’s evidence was that Miss Manning owed a drug debt to a patched member of the Aotearoa Mongrel mob, but her partner told the court that she did not have a drug debt.

He said the Crown had witnesses who were on Manchester Street on the night of Miss Manning’s murder, but even the witness on the opposite side of the road from her didn’t see him giving Miss Manning a phone to talk to the mob, as alleged, and there were no sightings of her being in the car he drove that night.

Fawcett is defending himself at the trial. In his closing address he talked about the timing of the text messages and where the cell towers had him sited, and how far away from Miss Manning he was.

He said he was never at the gang pad, and didn’t take part in the murder. It was all just a made-up theory.

He said in his first interviews he was telling the police a theory, but he was telling lies, and they had to match the lies up to add more glue to make them stick.

“I talked about how I took part in hurting Miss Manning, well I lied to police. People lie for many things, but I did not take part in this lady’s death,” he said.

There was none of his DNA at any scene, nor in the car, that linked him to Miss Manning, he said, and the weapons he described to the police were never found.

“I said that this was a Mongrel Mob hit but I lied about that too. Because if it was a Mongrel Mob hit I wouldn’t have been down on Manchester Street that night compromising the whole bit.”

The things that were consistent in his interviews were a whole lot of lies, he said.

Fawcett denies murdering 27-year-old Ngatai Lynette Manning, known as Mellory, on or about December 18, 2008. Manning’s partly naked body was found in the Avon River on December 19, 2008.

Fawcett’s amicus curiae, his lega adviser Craig Ruane, also took the jury through the timings of the events and the texts picked up from the cell towers around the city.

He said according to the Crown Fawcett had driven from Bealey Avenue west, picked up Miss Manning, she had been raped, beaten, killed, wrapped in tarpaulin, driven to the river and dropped in it in the space of barely 20 minutes.

He said five years after the murder the people who planned it had not been charged, no weapons had been found, and there was no DNA or forensic evidence at any venue.

Fawcett made a serious statement to the police, foolishly, stupidly, Mr Ruane said.

He was not a mastermind, but rather a dim prospect caught up in something way beyond his comprehension. Gang prospects were the gophers, and took the rap for any patched member’s offending, he said.

He said the “hit” Fawcett talked about was not necessarily a reference to killing but might have been a reference to serious violence.

Fawcett said he was on Manchester Street when the murder occurred. He didn’t know Miss Manning was going to be killed, and didn’t go to the pad in Galbraith Avenue that night, Mr Ruane said.

If Miss Manning was killed by the mob they wouldn’t get their money, and the police would be all over the place, which would be bad for business, he said.

It was likely she was going to be assaulted, perhaps even sexually, but her death was not a probable consequence.

Mr Ruane said even Fawcett’s presence at the scene did not make him a party. He must be shown to have assisted in some way. And even if he helped clean up afterwards it did not make it a charge of murder.

Fawcett could not tell anyone who “male B” was – whose DNA was found on Miss Manning – because he did not know, because he wasn’t there and not because he was frightened, Mr Ruane said.

The court is not sitting tomorrow and Justice Gendall is due to sum up the case on Monday before the jury retires to consider its verdict.

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